Double changer idea
Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:12 pm
I've built pull/release, all pull, and double changer guitars. My favourite is the double changer, but it is significantly more complicated to make. The beauty of it in my mind anyway is the total lack of any undesireable interaction between the raising and the lowering of the same string, especially when there are more than one raise or lower.
I got this idea about 3:00 AM in the night last night (this is when I wake up most nights lately)....must be a 74 thing! Anyway, got up and scribbled some drawings and made a test board up today. It does work really good, and not too hard to make, way better and easier than what I've been making before. Of course it's for a keyless guitar which is not everybody's cup of tea. If you look at the pictures it's a 24-1/4" scale. I also thought now's a good time to try running the string through the finger rather than pins or slots etc. I don't see a problem with doing that either. I tried different strings on the test board all the way from .010 to a .50 which is on there in the picture. Spring tension is adjustable but seems to be adequate for anything I tried. The basic tuning is with the bolt that sticks up and the piece it's attached to doesn't move at all when tuning. It's 3 raises and 3 lowers, fine tuning done with the regular nylon nuts. I have this butternut body made up but it's only 29" long so had to "invent" a tuning system that would fit on the space I had left at the far end (about 2-1/2"). This will be a Zane King E6/9 tuning guitar and has a total of 24 pulls. A bit much for an all pull 10 string but I think this design will work out better all around.
Thanks for looking at my hair brained stuff all the time, and I really would like any comments ar suggestions any of you might have on how I could maybe do it different or whatever...
Rotten day here....non stop March rain, melting all the snow and making nasty ice for us old guys to fall on!
Cheers,
Mac
I got this idea about 3:00 AM in the night last night (this is when I wake up most nights lately)....must be a 74 thing! Anyway, got up and scribbled some drawings and made a test board up today. It does work really good, and not too hard to make, way better and easier than what I've been making before. Of course it's for a keyless guitar which is not everybody's cup of tea. If you look at the pictures it's a 24-1/4" scale. I also thought now's a good time to try running the string through the finger rather than pins or slots etc. I don't see a problem with doing that either. I tried different strings on the test board all the way from .010 to a .50 which is on there in the picture. Spring tension is adjustable but seems to be adequate for anything I tried. The basic tuning is with the bolt that sticks up and the piece it's attached to doesn't move at all when tuning. It's 3 raises and 3 lowers, fine tuning done with the regular nylon nuts. I have this butternut body made up but it's only 29" long so had to "invent" a tuning system that would fit on the space I had left at the far end (about 2-1/2"). This will be a Zane King E6/9 tuning guitar and has a total of 24 pulls. A bit much for an all pull 10 string but I think this design will work out better all around.
Thanks for looking at my hair brained stuff all the time, and I really would like any comments ar suggestions any of you might have on how I could maybe do it different or whatever...
Rotten day here....non stop March rain, melting all the snow and making nasty ice for us old guys to fall on!
Cheers,
Mac